Box office: Straight Outta Compton debuts at #1

Total ticket sales over the weekend for the top-20 movies crept back above $10m to $10.61m, making it four successive weeks around the $10m mark or just below.

Driving people into cinemas was Straight Outta Compton, which accounted for just over 40% of all ticket sales with a first weekend opening of $4.52m. The biographical film about US West Coast hip hop group N.W.A. from director F. Gary Gray opened on 323 screens and had a screen average of $14,021. That is the best screen average for a major new release since the first two weekends of JurassicWorld did $26,000 and $16,000.

The rest of the top five saw the four films each taking over half a million dollars: #2 Southpaw’s third weekend did $712,000 #3 Vacation’s third weekend did $578,000 #4 Ricki and the Flash’s second weekend did $574,000 #5 The Gift’s second weekend did $525,000

After six weeks Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation spend another week at #6 with $521,000 and a total take of $15.37m

The final movie to reach half a million was A Walk in the Woods with RobertRedford playing writer BillBryson, which opened with $500,000 on 146 screens at $3,431 per screen.

The Walt Disney film Inside Out is the biggest earner still in the top 20, but it could be on the way out as it hovered at #18 after 12 weeks with takings of $30.91m.